A new Cold War era.

[j1979]

All i'm saying is this, with a direct gas pipeline into a lot of mainland EU homes, buildings & institutions, and a possible stockpile of various ultra-fine nerve agent powders. I'll be cooking in the microwave for the foreseeable future.

[SeriousSam]

Snip... Bring back actual reporters, and sack all the smug, self-satisfied idiots pushing their own agenda .... starting with Newsnight.

I'd put the main C4 news presenters ahead of Newsnight by a gnats nadger, on that score.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Boris does what Boris always does - his own thing.

[The Hand]

All i'm saying is this, with a direct gas pipeline into a lot of mainland EU homes, buildings & institutions, and a possible stockpile of various ultra-fine nerve agent powders. I'll be cooking in the microwave for the foreseeable future.

I personally think we could be just one significant event/attack away from a military confrontation between NATO and Russia.. I wouldn't be suprised to hear of Russian aircraft briefly entering NATO airspace and being shoot down in the near future or something similiar.

I've actually been wondering what if the RAF shot down a Russian bomber or two, that seem have a habit of hanging around near British airspace and then deny all knowledge of it, in the same smug fashion Putin did with the nerve agent attack?

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4269...ar-uk-airspace

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I personally think we could be just one significant event/attack away from a military confrontation between NATO and Russia.. I wouldn't be suprised to hear of Russian aircraft briefly entering NATO airspace and being shoot down in the near future or someting similiar.

I've actually been wondering what if the RAF shot down a Russian bomber or two, that seem have a habit of hanging around near British airspace and then deny all knowledge of it, in the same smug fashion Putin did with the nerve agent attack?

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4269...ar-uk-airspace

When that Su24 was shot down by Turkey,there was a bit of moaning,some saving face,and then it went back to normal. It also happened repeatedly during the cold war when both sides shot down aircraft on sniffing missions on each others borders.

Remember that US EP3 which collided with a Chinese F8 fighter a while back,when there was a "sniffing" mission. Some moaning,etc and it went back to normal. This is what the news here hides - each side is surveying each other's borders. Its been happening for 70+ years.

You should be more worried about Syria. Lots more sabre-rattling there:

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mi...-idUKKCN1GP0U4

Also the fact,its well within reach of each others cruise missles. Now add Israel,Iran,Saudi Arabia into all of that and it really is volatile. Any one of them can do something which can lead to the **** hitting the fan.

Edit!!

Also,look what China said today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-43466685

Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered a fervently nationalistic closing speech to parliament, painting China as the rising global power.

Mr Xi said "achieving total unity" was the "collective hope of all Chinese people" and any attempts to divide it were "doomed to fail".

The speech was a strong warning against any attempt at separatism from places like Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Mr Xi also warned China could not be complacent about its development.

Meanwhile, Premier Li Keqiang used his once-a-year news conference to say China was committed to global co-operation on trade.

He said China would further open up its economy and "ensure that both domestic and foreign firms" were "able to compete on fair terms in China's large market". Chinese officials have made similar pledges in the past.

The premier's comments are a marked contrast to the recent protectionist rhetoric and threats of tariffs from the Trump administration in the US.

'Punished by history'

Xi Jinping became president in 2013 and now looks likely to lead China indefinitely, after the National People's Congress (NPC) - a rubber-stamp parliamentary session that meets once a year - voted to remove a two-term limit on the presidency from the constitution.

He is now considered the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, and has further cemented his position by moving many of his key allies in to leadership roles during the NPC.

In his speech in the Great Hall of the People, Mr Xi highlighted major achievements of Chinese history, like the invention of gunpowder and the writings of Confucius.

He laid out his own grand vision for China, saying history had proven that "only socialism can save China".

Chinese people, he said, "have the spirit of fighting the bloody battle against our enemies to the bitter end".

See what I said about the "century of shame". Now consider that China and Russia are now increasingly collaborating in many spheres,including naval and land exercises. The fact that in the UN,they also tend to support each other most times.

[The Hand]

Yes, I'm familiar with the "century of shame" in the Chinese mindset and the Chinese state's very long term thinking. I think also there was a famous quote of a Western historian asking a Chinese politician what he thought about the French Revolution and he replied "It's too early to tell"! The Chinese state certainly likes to think in terms of centuries, not just generations! In the West politcians too often just think of the next election maybe 5 years tops!

Like you say we could be looking at China wanting to make a move on to world stage as the next power(not just a rival power) in the near to medium term. It could be when there is another financial crash in the West, then China and Russia decide to dump the US dollar in unison and with the West in turmoil, the rest of developing world falls in line behind potentially a new financial system headed by China and Russia. I think India could aline itself with the West though as I can't see it adopting a future Chinese financial model but who knows?

Militarily at the moment, it's questionable whether China can face up to the U.S 7th Fleet, Japanese Navy and Tawianese Forces so it might not even try. China might just wait for economic turmoil in the West to kick off again and dump the dollar and watch the West recede as the printing press currencies flounder and then test Western resolve in future with both it's financial and military expansionism. They're looking further than Taiwan, South China Sea and Senkaku Islands; China could argue that Singapore is part of the Sinosphere as is Malaysia and quite a few other places with significant Chinese polulations. This would fit in with that sentiment they expressed with uniting all Chinese peoples... It could be argued that it is almost racial identitarianism masked as nationalism considering how some ethnic minorities in China get treated.

China is heavily investing in Africa too, to the point where some African people are considering it as a new Asian colonisation age after the European colonisation age that has just ended. This in itself is creating a new class struture in subsaharan Africa with the winners working for Chinese and African sister companies and the losers heading north to try their chances trying to cross the Med and trying to start a new life in Europe.

I pretty much agree the future doesn't look too bright with China going the route it has chosen. A new authoritarian dynasty linked with ultra nationalism, maybe even racial identitarianism in there somewhere and not pursuing any kind of liberal Western idealogy.

[peterb]

I've actually been wondering what if the RAF shot down a Russian bomber or two, that seem have a habit of hanging around near British airspace and then deny all knowledge of it, in the same smug fashion Putin did with the nerve agent attack?

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-4269...ar-uk-airspace

Those types of probes were almost daily occurrences at the height of the Cold War and continued well into the early 1990s, so nothing really new, apart from starting again in recent months.

[Millennium]

Interesting thread, thanks all. I hope things continue as they are really with the cool war and the west leading the way. Russia has had some serious economic problems in recent years but if the markets decide to call the debt of say the USA we may have a problem.

[kalniel]

Tin foil hat time, but is there some significance to the fact that the UK expelled 23 diplomats, and now another 23 countries have expelled diplomats? Was the nerve agent foliant 23 or something?

[Xlucine]

Tin foil hat time, but is there some significance to the fact that the UK expelled 23 diplomats, and now another 23 countries have expelled diplomats? Was the nerve agent foliant 23 or something?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Number_23
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_enigma
All the expelled diplomats probably had 23 chromosomes to boot